Being set up - to fail!!

[Peterpickedapickled]

I have worked for the same school for 9 years in an admin role. I recently got promoted to a higher grade. The role was new and covers HR, line management and being responsible for cover when staff are absent. Staff absence was dealt with by a member of SLT previously due to the insight they have into the school/classes etc.

I have been in the role for 3 months. All going okay but I haven’t had much support, guidance or mentor support. I am just finding things out in my own and pushing ahead.

The absence cover is very challenging due to the existing process. For example, classes are fighting over staff and making demands on me that are time consuming and not necessary. Mornings are very stressful but class leads are constantly emailing or texting on my work mobile telling me that they don’t want that supply person etc. I have never done cover and I have never worked in class so it’s a challenge for me. I am trying new ways of working to help reduce my workload whilst still providing the right sort of cover that fits the needs of our students but this is becoming impossible. Each year lead wants me to work a different way, they don’t work together as leaders and instead are cherry picking and giving me unreasonable demands. They like me to update a cover spreadsheet even if that absence doesn’t need covering and when I challenge it, it’s so that it reminds them that their staff are off!! I am acting as their PA. The work is now taking me the majority of my day to complete.

We use 9 different supply agencies because that’s how the member of SLT ran it before. She never checked what they were charging the school and dealing with that many agencies is time consuming and means we can’t and never have negotiated on the cost. The school is on its knees financially! I wanted to tackle this and had a plan but this member of SLT is still keeping a foot in and she has made her own agreements with yet another new agency without letting me know. The checking and approving of time sheets takes me hours! She is also meeting with me as she still deals with staffing as a whole. In these meetings she is trying to encourage me to do what she wants with supply. She isn’t offering suggestions, she is manipulating me and the situation. I have considered these suggestions and some I have knocked back. She doesn’t like this even though I can give reasons for why.

So I have been feeding all this back to my manager who has seen the issue with his own eyes. The amount of time I spend on this is now effecting the rest of my work and meeting deadlines.

My boss spoke to me yesterday about it because that member of SLT and the Headteacher have told him to “sort me out”! Apparently it’s all gone to shit since I have been doing the job, I am making mistakes (again I have raised this with my boss because I have made some mistakes but I am new to role, no real support from anyone and just told to get on with it). I can’t meet their HR deadlines, for example, because they are giving me a few days to get job adverts out, get our vetting checks done before they want them in school working! It’s a safeguarding nightmare.

So they want to take the supply work off me and give it to a new lady who works in admin! Nothing wiil change and she will struggle too! My boss told them that it wasnt me, it was the process and how they work. He told them it was not my incompetence. He has been telling SLT for years that there are major issues and he has proposed working practices as he is the Business Manager. He told me that he will be looking at it this week and proposing a business case for staffing and costs. He said that if the spending does not reduce, the school will fail. If they don’t agree, he is taking it to Governors.

I am really upset and angry. I feel like I have been setup to fail. The role is so stressful and I am crying at home about it. What they want me to do is impossible in the hours I work. That member of SLT was even calling me in my private mobile having got my number off the staff database. I had to tell her not to do this which she didn’t like!
I want to ensure I am not the scapegoat here. My plan is to push forward with my plans to make the role more efficient and streamlined for us all whilst focusing on needs. What can I do? I feel they are tarnishing the reputation I have spent 9 years trying to build at this school.

I would start looking for another job as you can say that you have experience now. It won’t improve where you are.

They need to look at why they keep needing to advertise so many jobs if people are leaving.

do not cut corners on all the checks.

email the SLT the process and that it is legally required and you will not be deviating from it. You could end up sacked or in prison if the worst happened.

sit down with your boss and work out the process that is financially sound and logical. Tell people the process and don’t be bullied by them. People don’t like change and they are probably stressed themselves due to all the staff turnover.

don’t be spoken but get a separate email address set up for cover requests so it’s not just your work account that gets clogged up.

Local Councils's really need to set themselves up as agencies for supply teachers to cut some of these overheads. I appreciate there will be an administrative burden but surely ai could help with a lot of this in the near future.

I understand her position because I have actually been in it.

The OP’s saga is a reality, and your fatuous comments are merely indicative of your lack of understanding and comprehension.

Why should she become a librarian, which is also actually a skilled job? She has a job. She is being undercut and scapegoated in her effort to do it. By teachers and teaching senior leaders.

Much as I am certain you will sneer, her role is important for several reasons. First is attempting to ensure the children have a teacher. Second to ensure that teacher comes with the requisite bone fides. Third is to ensure all the other staff at her school are onboarded in line with SRIE.

When Ofsted come calling, it’s the support staff member that is wheeled in first to discuss the Single Central Record. Failure in this area will break a school instantly.

OP should be given the support to do her job without the heap of derision that she faces from qualified teaching professionals that should bloody well know this.

In our Trust we are offering teacher leavers supply contracts. This means that we know their worth in a class, can provide them with flexibility, and ensure their day rate is in line with their latest recorded Teacher salary.

What I see more and more, are teachers that go through an agency rather than apply directly. Agency rates are 25% of that teacher’s starting salary, unless you have a ruthless HR that has the chance to negotiate in advance.

Context an U3 teacher would incur £12,700 fee. That’s half a TA.

But yep, let me pop on Indeed for a Librarian job.

But how would you find them? You'd have to advertise (you might not get anyone), interview and do the DBS, right to work checks etc. The agency does all that (and has probably already poached the suitable candidates...). Or you pay the agency a hefty release fee to permanently hire someone off their books. Schools are short of time as well as money as the OP details.

@Pawparazziit becomes clearer to me with every response you summon that you are woefully lacking in any understanding of basic comprehension, let alone civility.

To misquote Buzz Lightyear “you are a strange, sad little poster and I pity you”

Agencies fees don’t impact the salary offered :/

What is your background op?

It is simple. Every single time someone is hired to do HR job but it isn’t an HR job…oh and you don’t need HR qualifications…you can bet it is a scapegoat role!

Honestly. You worked hard and deserve better. Go somewhere else. They do not appreciate you or else they wouldn’t have put you there. Sorry.

My honest reaction is that they know fine well they have given you too much but won't admit it. It's a huge task coveing absences and only one part of your role so please just try to see it as a blessing it will be passed on. It's not you, it's the magnitude of the tasks. Hoping the new person is given more time to do it, which SLT should realise is necessary. Xxx

@Blablibladirladada I started in a bank and then I went into the police. I needed better hours so started to work in admin roles in school. I worked my way up to get this role where I was told I would be doing a college apprenticeship in HR. This is yet to materialise.

@Vitriolinsanity I took the job from someone that ended up being dismissed due to some serious issues with her work. When I took over, everything was behind and in a mess, including the SCR. I am trying to correct this work but it’s proving too much. I am so busy fire fighting that I don’t have the time to make past errors right.

@Chinsupmeloves I think you are right! I should have known really. The first person I mentioned above was dismissed (with compensation of course) and a lady took it over for 4 months as a trial, only to give it back! I then applied with others and got the job. I wondered if I would live to regret it. It’s the same with other staff as well. My colleague in Finance has the same issues.

Most agency teachers are on the enhanced DBS update service and would prefer to be employed direct by schools.

my advice is that you look at other jobs pronto. There are so many schools in need, hopefully, you find the right one for you.

It is harder to find if you get dismissed and it looks to start looking that way. Just get out.

Good luck!

10 years ago when I was in a school the agency often made around £50 per person per day for a Teaching assistants and between £80-120 a day for teaching staff. So the school is paying say £150 a day for a TA but the TA was only seeing about 100 of that

Well I'm sure they would.

It seems though, that for whatever reason, that doesn't work for the schools.

I’ve been employed directly by schools, so some must find a way around it.

Rather like your posts on this thread really.

I don't know much about your school set up. But have a look at neutral vends to help manage your agency costs and the time spent managing this.

I work for one (if you want info pm me, regular but name changed). We flatten the fees and save you money and time.

If you’re suggesting ‘they’re worth’ should be amended to ‘their worth’ I’d suggest you read the paragraph again and, seriously, I hope you’re not teaching English.

Negotiating should I hope mean reducing the cut that agency takes, not necessarily reducing the supply teachers’ salaries , ie if you put a lot of business with one or two agencies then they should hopefully be happier with a smaller percentage on top of your salary.

It's the Agencies that set their rates. In England, Supply Teaching paid what I would be getting daily as a fully contracted teacher, with holiday pay calculated in the daily pay/ I NEVER worked through an Agency, but direct association with the school. This was however, when the Council did all its own employment of Supply work. I think you are right to question the Agencies for their prices, forget pea-nuts and Monkeys. Supply teaching is jolly hard work and often classes are much more disruptive for Supply and has nothing to do with 'bad' teaching. Try and build up your own list of Emergency cover. Good Luck.

It is tricky to arrange zero hours contracts for supply teachers. There are also new rules coming in from government about zero hour contract. Plus then there are costs like NI and pension. It should go back to councils who hold the list but obviously they outsourced to save money and it all went wrong like everything else that was sent to private sector to save money.

I understand private equity companies now own most of the supply agencies.

It would be possible to set up a not for profit one presumably, but if it were easy, someone would have done it.

Hi there, I feel you! I work in a very similar role, organising cover for 3 different schools.
It is extremely stressful in the morning, early starts, the same staff calling in sick all the time and not following the procedure, cover work not being sorted which puts the supply off coming to school.
I have an agreement in place with one agency, and have first call with them for a number of regular staff, then also have a back up agency for very busy days.

I think @Pawparazzi owes you an apology.